Home from the war, veterans at risk of suicide

November 01, 2007|By From news services

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of troops have come home from war, left the military and committed suicide.

That is the finding of preliminary Veterans Affairs Department research obtained by The Associated Press that provides the first quantitative look at the suicide toll on today's combat veterans. The ongoing research reveals that at least 283 combat veterans who left the military between the start of the war in Afghanistan on Oct. 7, 2001, and the end of 2005 took their own lives.

The numbers, while not dramatically different from society as a whole, are reminiscent of the increased suicide risk among returning soldiers from Vietnam.

Today's homefront suicide tally is running at least double the number of troop suicides in the war zones as thousands of men and women return with disabling injuries and mental health disorders that put them at higher risk.

In response, the VA is ramping up suicide prevention programs.

Research suggests that combat trauma increases the risk of suicide, according to the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Difficulty dealing with failed relationships, financial and legal troubles, and substance abuse also are risk factors among troops, said Cynthia O. Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

Families see the effects firsthand.

"None of them come back without being touched a little," said Mary Gallagher, a mother of three whose husband, Marine Gunnery Sgt. James Gallagher, took his own life in 2006 inside their home at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

He was proud of his Iraq service, but she wonders if he was bothered by the death of his captain in Iraq or an incident in which he helped rescue a soldier who was in a fire and later died. Shortly before his death, her husband was distraught over an assignment change he saw as an insult, she said.

"His death contradicts the very person he was. It's very confusing and difficult to understand," Gallagher said.

The family of another Iraq veteran who committed suicide, Jeffrey Lucey, 23, of Belchertown, Mass., filed suit against the former VA secretary, alleging that bad care at the VA was to blame.

And the family of Joshua Omvig, a 22-year-old Iraq war veteran from Davenport, Iowa, who also committed suicide, successfully pushed Congress to pass a bill that President Bush is expected to sign that requires the VA to improve suicide prevention care.

Just looking at the VA's early numbers, Dr. Ira Katz, the VA's deputy chief patient care service officer for mental health, said there does not appear to be an epidemic of suicides among those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan who left the military.

Katz said post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and problem drinking increase a person's suicide risk by two or three times, but the rate of suicide among those with such conditions "is still very, very low."

He acknowledged, however, that it is too early to know the long-term ramifications for those who served in the wars and said the VA "is very intensely involved in increasing suicide prevention."

"We're not doing it because there's an epidemic in returning veterans, though each death of a returning veteran is a tragedy and it's important to prevent it," Katz said.

One major hurdle in stopping suicide is getting people to ask for help. From 20 percent to 50 percent of active duty troops and reservists who returned from war reported psychological problems, relationship problems, depression and symptoms of stress reactions, but most report that they have not sought help, according to a report from a military mental health task force.

"It's only when it becomes painful will someone seek counseling," said Chris Ayres, manager of the combat stress recovery program at the Wounded Warrior Project, a private veterans' assistance group based in Jacksonville, Fla. "That's usually how it happens. Nobody just walks in, because it's the hardest thing for a male, a Marine, a type-A personality figure to just go in there and say, 'Hey, I need some help.' "

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BY THE NUMBERS

At least this many of the 1.5 million troops who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan have killed themselves over the past six years, according to the Defense Manpower Data Center, which tracks casualties for the Pentagon.

At least this many U.S. military deaths have been reported overall since the wars started -- 3,842 in Iraq and 387 in and around Afghanistan.

Number of calls taken since July at the VA's national suicide hot line.